“I keep track of the weather, the moon phases, barometric pressure, the water temperature, whether the lake is high or low, whether the water is cloudy, clear or streaky and all sorts of things,” said Villa, 47. “It’s like doing homework every day.”

Villa is not an average type of fisherman. He just returned from his first trip to the 2012 BASS Federation National Championship in Decatur, Ala.

“It was an amazing experience,” he said.

The trip leading up to Decatur was an ordeal on its own. To qualify, Villa had to first qualify at the State Team Qualifying Tournament, held in April of 2011 at Truman Lake, Miss. Having qualified, Villa went on as an alternate to the Western Divisional Tournament at Flaming Gorge, Wyo.

“I was able to compete when one of the other guys had to drop out,” Villa said. “I had to overcome some adversity there.”

When he arrived at the tournament, he was told to fish from the back of the boat.

“I won the tournament in the end, though,” he said. “And it was so awesome to be the best fisherman in Colorado and ranked to go to the world tournament.”

And so it was on to Decatur, to Wheeler Lake, from Oct. 25-27, to compete among the top 56 bass fishermen in the world. Villa’s competitors included fishermen from Japan and South Africa.

“I had two days of pre-fishing before the competition started and spent that time trying to fish the current, which is not something we have to do here,” he said. “It was tricky to try and learn that.”

During the competition, Villa had a solid tournament, bringing in fish all three days.

“It didn’t work out quite as well as I’d hoped, but I did pretty well anyway,” he said.

One of the parts of the competition that Villa said he enjoyed most was meeting and interacting with all the other fishermen.

“We made some great friends from Connecticut and New Jersey,” Villa said. “And the staff was awesome; they really gave us the red carpet treatment.”

The competitors stayed in hotel rooms provided by the tournament, and everything from their transportation to the competition to the boats they used was provided by the Bassmaster Federation Nation.

Even though Villa did not end up winning or placing high in the tournament, he’s hungry to go back.

“I’d been to the state level and three Western Divisionals before, but this was my first trip to the worlds,” he said. “Knowing I’ve been there before; yeah, I definitely want to go back.”